Tag: Punishment

In response to the prison hunger strike that’s spread throughout California since the beginning of July, a federal judge ruled Monday that officials could force-feed the inmates. After seven grueling weeks, there are still 69 prisoners who are refusing to eat the facilities’ meals.

Decrying the modern U.S. justice system as a “joke,” the right-wing rocker suggested that the U.S. go back to its old method of public hangings so that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev could have “his neck stretched” on the Fourth of July.

In several men’s prisons across California, colored signs hang above cell doors: blue for black inmates, white for white, red, green or pink for Hispanic, yellow for everyone else. On any given day, the color of a sign could mean the difference between an inmate exercising in the prison yard or being confined to his cell.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney launched his memoir this week, and on Tuesday, Lawrence Wilkerson, our Truthdigger of the Week, said he would be willing to testify in criminal court against Cheney should the opportunity ever arise.

President Barack Obama has signaled an escalation in the ongoing nuclear dispute with Iran, warning that punitive measures could come soon after Tehran rejected a proposal to send its enriched uranium to Russia or France for further processing.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that lethal injection cannot be included under the constitutional amendment barring cruel and unusual punishment, clearing the way for the lifting of state moratoriums on executions that were installed last September.

Four hundred thirty-three foreigners were arrested by Saudi Arabia’s religious police for attending a party that served alcohol and allowed men and women to dance together. So far, 20 have been sentenced to lashings and months of prison time. (Photo above involves a separate case.)

George Bush may have come to power claiming to be a “compassionate conservative,” but his miserly use of the president’s abililty to pardon makes him one of American history’s most indifferent leaders.

The United States has the largest prison population in the world, with 2.2 million people in prison and 7 million in prison, on probation or on parole. China, which has about a billion more people than the U.S., has only 1.5 million prisoners.

Salon chronicles a growing Christian fundamentalist parenting practice of hitting and otherwise harming one’s children to “train them up.” The practice is directly linked to the death of a 4-year-old who was suffocated underneath blankets to keep him from leaving his bed. (Reg. req’d.)

No sooner had Ariel Sharon been rushed to the hospital with a “significant stroke” than the Rev. Pat Robertson informed the viewers of his cable TV 700 Club that this was God’s punishment for Sharon’s decision to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza.